To Improve the Dispersibility of Carbon Black in Water with Plasma and Organic Amines Treatments

Carbon black has been widely used in many industrial areas,but it is poor dispersibility in water. In order to improve its dispersibility in water,carbon black was treated by oxygen plasma. Plasma treatment,as one of the environmental friendly methods,has been used to introduce polar groups,mainly oxygen-containing groups,to the surface of carbon black. The results show the dispersibility of treated carbon black in water is greatly improved,which is expressed with the centrifugal and gravity settlement rates. Analysis of the treated carbon black with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) indicates that oxygen plasma treatment can cause significant increase of polar groups including C-OH,COOH,C=O,and O-C-O on the surface of carbon black thus greatly improves the dispersing stability of carbon black in water. Besides,the dispersibility of plasma treated carbon black can be further improved by the addition of organic amines,especially polyetheramines. The improvement of the dispersing stability of carbon black has also been confirmed by zeta potential measurements.